Free Stormy the Way by Anne Hampson Page A

you've sacrificed your freedom - that you've spoiled your life?'
    'I haven't spoiled it. I shall carry on as before.' A small pause and then, continuing what he was about to say, before the interruption, 'Paul was infatuated; was too blind and inexperienced to realize that all you cared about was his money - as all Englishwomen do. His father entrusted his fortune to my care and I'd ha^ failed in my duty had I allowed the marriage to take place. Paul is now safe from your avaricious clutches—'
    'Avaricious clutches! Oh, how dare you!'
    'He's a child still, whereas you're a woman of the world—'
    'How have you reached that conclusion?' she demanded hotly.

    'No woman of your age would fall in love with a boy like Paul.' She made no comment and he then added, 'Can you deny that?'
    He knew she could not, simply because events had proved beyond doubt that she had never loved Paul. Reading her thoughts, he went on contemptuously, 'You were quick to accept my offer, weren't you, Tara? But then Paul had obviously told you that my fortune is far greater than his.'
    Every vestige of colour had fled from her cheeks now. She had been thinking of telling him the whole truth, but she saw that it would do her no good and it would do Paul a great deal of harm. Leon had no love at all for her, so nothing she could say would help her in her plight. What an utter fool she had been, to think that a man like Leon could fall in love with her. Hadn't she told herself that he was cold and unfeeling? - that he held women in contempt? She deserved all she had received and with an acceptance of this she turned away, without troubling to argue with his implication that she had married him for his money. Pride would not let her remain, here in his bedroom, with him lying there, propped on one elbow, regarding her with amused contempt, and enjoying the fact of her humiliation at being thus treated, on her wedding night. That she desired him she would not deny even now, but she made a vow that he would never know this. Would she leave him? She supposed she must, but for the present her mind was in no fit condition for making decisions. In any case, there was plenty of time.
    After leaving his room she closed the door softly behind her, then pressed her hands to it, bent her head, and wept bitterly, and silently until, racked by sobs, she realized she was making herself ill and she got into bed. Sleep was denied her, as was to be expected; she tossed and turned all night, asking herself over and over again how she had come to fall in love with him in the first place and, having done so, blithely accepted that he also had fallen in love. Only a fool would have been so blind and so trusting. It wasn't as if she hadn't known an inner warning that he was playing some game with her. But even had she gone into that she would never in a thousand years have hit on the truth. To marry her to save Paul! Again she could have laughed -
    laughed like someone almost deranged, so ludicrous it all was. Apart from herself, and the terrible plight in which she now was, there was the fact of Leon's having shackled himself with a wife whom he did not love and never would love - and all for nothing, since there had never been any question of Paul's being in danger.
    Suddenly, in the darkness of the night, there came to her the idea of revenge. She would remain here until Paul received his inheritance, and then she would tell Leon the truth. She would laugh in his face and scoff at his stupidity! It would be his turn then to suffer humiliation - and bitter chagrin, knowing that his sacrifice had been so totally unnecessary. Yes, that was what she would do. And then she would leave Poros, and never set foot on the shores of Greece again as long as she lived.
    The night came to an end at last, a night so different from what she had dreamed of only a few hours ago as she got into bed in her old room at Stewart's house. Stewart! Humiliation gripped her again at the recollection